Dumb question. Do I need a Speer Relaoding manual to load Speer bullets? I have a Lyman and a Hornady book, and they list different over all lengths for 150 grain bullets on a .308 Winchester case.

Hornady : 2.756"
Lyman : 2.685"

Thanks

Not really. See Pilot's post #1004 (a couple back). The primary concerns are to seat the bullet so that it is not jammed into the rifling, and the loaded round fits in the magazine.

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"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."J. Cooper

I got a thousand 180gr 40 cal bullets for about 6 cents a piece awhile back & finally broke down & bought a Redding G-Rx Push-Thru die set to get rid of the dreaded Glock bulge.

Works as advertised.

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Equal to all of you of roads and good luck! - krokodil al-kashi

“We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer.” —”Extreme Behavior in Aspen,” February 3, 2003

"The State sees the spectre looming ahead of terrorism and anarchy, and this increases the risk of its over-reaction and a reduction in our freedom." - Stanley Kubrick

That's an interesting die setup for the 40. Back in the 90s when I was shooting a lot of IPSC I had to be very careful to check brass for the bulge. Glocks were not the only offender, some of the S&W semi-auto handguns were bad that way too. I was shooting an STI Edge which didn't bulge the brass, but wouldn't feed oversized handloaded ammo either. When you pick up 50 cases on the range you have to watch it.

I'd be interested to know how many bulge and resize cycles the brass will survive. Keep us posted, AceRph.

The die was ~$70. The bullets were so inexpensive that the cost per round including the cost of the die will be ~$17/100.

__________________
Equal to all of you of roads and good luck! - krokodil al-kashi

“We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer.” —”Extreme Behavior in Aspen,” February 3, 2003

"The State sees the spectre looming ahead of terrorism and anarchy, and this increases the risk of its over-reaction and a reduction in our freedom." - Stanley Kubrick

Also was chatting with a cool guy on THR about casting .45 plinking loads and he sent me 50 bullets for free!

I had the same experience on www.castboolits.gunloads.com only better:-) I started a thread there about problems I was having getting a Marlin 1894 to shoot cast bullets. I've had 4 different guys send a total of about 200 bullets...one of them has sent two batches. None of them looking to sell anything, just being helpful. To say that there is a wealth of info on that site is an understatement. I have been reloading & casting since the '70's and considered myself pretty knowledgeable...found out pretty quick that I was a n00b & a dumbass when it came to cast bullets. Fortunately they tolerate that pretty well.

Excellent site. There are a ton of folks there who have been dead serious about reloading & casting bullets for decades. Worth a look for sure.

I was just alerted to this thread from the 'I love this gun' thread and glad to find it. Will be perusing frequently. To start it off, does any body else use this device for loading:
I love mine and just a few days I gave away my RCBS press because I don't need it. You can feel subleties of the loading process better than any other way. I use a Lee collet die on my .308 benchrest loads and can get each bullet seating exactly the same with the feel I have with the hand press. Also works really well at the range for real time load testing.

__________________"Get yourself to the hills and be uplifted, assuming you got some good knobbies"

I was just alerted to this thread from the 'I love this gun' thread and glad to find it. Will be perusing frequently. To start it off, does any body else use this device for loading:
I love mine and just a few days I gave away my RCBS press because I don't need it. You can feel subleties of the loading process better than any other way. I use a Lee collet die on my .308 benchrest loads and can get each bullet seating exactly the same with the feel I have with the hand press. Also works really well at the range for real time load testing.

I've seen those but have never used one. They look like they'd be a good workout!! Full-length resize 500 30-06 rounds with something like that and you'd have arms like a gorilla!

I've seen those but have never used one. They look like they'd be a good workout!! Full-length resize 500 30-06 rounds with something like that and you'd have arms like a gorilla!

I full length resize .308 Winchester brass from time to time, but only 50 rounds at a time. I never resize my .308 accuracy brass except neck squeeze at just the right size for my bullets. It has a real advantage in feeling the tension and straightness of bullet insertion, which is where I have found much of the accuracy lies. If I use my accuracy brass on another rifle, then I full length resize. But the workout is part of the fun. And for pistol ammo, I partially resize all my .45 LC brass everytime I shoot it as part of the decapping. And I used the hand press for about 1500 .308 rounds and 1000 .45LC rounds in the last 10 months.

__________________"Get yourself to the hills and be uplifted, assuming you got some good knobbies"

I full length resize .308 Winchester brass from time to time, but only 50 rounds at a time. I never resize my .308 accuracy brass except neck squeeze at just the right size for my bullets. It has a real advantage in feeling the tension and straightness of bullet insertion, which is where I have found much of the accuracy lies. If I use my accuracy brass on another rifle, then I full length resize. But the workout is part of the fun. And for pistol ammo, I partially resize all my .45 LC brass everytime I shoot it as part of the decapping. And I used the hand press for about 1500 .308 rounds and 1000 .45LC rounds in the last 10 months.

Do you use a separate neck sizing die, or just back out the FL one? I remember years ago trying that with a 243, which is a 308 necked down to 6mm, and it didn't work, the sizer would squeeze the body of the round just enough to lengthen it and make it really tough to chamber. I suppose if I'd backed it out further and only sized part of the neck rather than 80-90%, it might have worked better.

I've used neck sizing dies for 7mm Rem Mag and also my 9.3x74R, but not anything else. I also shoot a lot of 308, but have four guns in that caliber and use the same ammo in all of them. Two are semi autos and two are bolt actions, so neck sizing does not make sense for me. I FL size handgun ammo too, although probably would not have to with rounds like the 38 and 45Colt which I tend to load pretty mild.

Do you use a separate neck sizing die, or just back out the FL one? I remember years ago trying that with a 243, which is a 308 necked down to 6mm, and it didn't work, the sizer would squeeze the body of the round just enough to lengthen it and make it really tough to chamber. I suppose if I'd backed it out further and only sized part of the neck rather than 80-90%, it might have worked better.

I've used neck sizing dies for 7mm Rem Mag and also my 9.3x74R, but not anything else. I also shoot a lot of 308, but have four guns in that caliber and use the same ammo in all of them. Two are semi autos and two are bolt actions, so neck sizing does not make sense for me. I FL size handgun ammo too, although probably would not have to with rounds like the 38 and 45Colt which I tend to load pretty mild.

The Lee collet die which has the primer removal tool built in is what I use. You adjust the collet depth and squeeze so that minimal distortion of the case mouth occurs and the bullet seats squarely and with minimal tension. I normally do a second closing neck squeeze after I remove the primer and with the hand press I can get each neck dimension perfect by feel. I know that when I seat the bullet and can feel the same pressure when the bullet goes in. The Lee collet dies use a segmented section that evenly squeezes the case neck without distortion and that is the key to their success. All other dies are very hard to adjust to get consistent neck sizing for accurate bullet seating. And with my two Savage bolt guns (one varmint model and one other) I adjust the headspace so that the ammo is not interchangeable. This helps with accuracy.

__________________"Get yourself to the hills and be uplifted, assuming you got some good knobbies"

I full length resize .308 Winchester brass from time to time, but only 50 rounds at a time. I never resize my .308 accuracy brass except neck squeeze at just the right size for my bullets. It has a real advantage in feeling the tension and straightness of bullet insertion, which is where I have found much of the accuracy lies. If I use my accuracy brass on another rifle, then I full length resize. But the workout is part of the fun. And for pistol ammo, I partially resize all my .45 LC brass everytime I shoot it as part of the decapping. And I used the hand press for about 1500 .308 rounds and 1000 .45LC rounds in the last 10 months.

When I had the .308 rebarreled, the guy who did it also made me a set of straight line benchrest dies using the same chambering reamer. The neck is resized by pushing a hardened steel bushing into the die after the case is inserted, so everything is in perfect alignment during neck sizing. A decapping rod is then inserted, decapping the case as it's pushed out of the die. It's all done with a small rack and pinion type press. The gun shoots tight cloverleafs at 100 yards.

Gotta watch them cloverleafs man. Those things will charge you if they are just wounded..........

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